The Jacksonville Jaguars turned the ball over three times and failed to score a touchdown on three trips to the red zone, yet still managed to pick up a fifth straight win Sunday.
With a 20-10 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Jaguars are rolling into a much-needed Week 9 bye with a 6-2 record, a hefty lead in the AFC South, and a share of first place in the AFC.
Not much is going wrong in Duval, but the Jaguars aren’t quite blowing out teams either. Against a Steelers team that went three-and-out on its first four possessions and turned the ball over on its last three, why was the game in contention so long?
The positives certainly outweigh the negatives for the Jaguars, but the latter isn’t non-existent. Here’s who stood out most in the team’s Week 8 win at Acrisure Stadium:
Studs: OLBs Josh Allen and Travon Walker
Allen continued his push for a massive contract by adding two more sacks to his total. He’s now at nine through eight games. That’s more than any of his last three years and he’s just two more sacks away from beating his career-best of 10.5 in a season.
Walker made his presence felt too. The former No. 1 overall pick got a sack on the second play of the game and then drew a holding penalty on the third.
The miserable day for Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky on Sunday is probably what the Jaguars envisioned for opposing offenses when they paired Walker with Allen last year.
Studs: DBs Dewey Wingard and Montaric Brown
The alarm sirens probably went off for a lot of Jaguars fans when the list of inactives came out Sunday. No Tyson Campbell and no Andre Cisco? Was George Pickens going to prove his “Hope Defense” comment, right?
Nope.
With the duo of Wingard and Brown starting as fill-ins, the 22-yard touchdown for Pickens was the only reception of the day for the receiver. Wingard recorded an interception and the Steelers offense struggled to find room for anything.
Stud: Jaguars offense in its own territory
The Jaguars started in their own territory 10 times Sunday and moved across the 50-yard line on nine of those possessions. Jacksonville only scored one touchdown, but it won the field position battle handily and Brandon McManus was able to use that to nail four field goals.
Dud: Jaguars offense in Steelers territory
Despite nine drives into Steelers territory, three into the red zone, and 377 yards of total offense, the Jaguars offense scored just one touchdown. Two drives ended with fumbles and one with possibly the worst decision of Trevor Lawrence’s career when he lobbed a ball into triple coverage in the end zone and it was unsurprisingly intercepted.
In fact, the only touchdown of the day for the Jaguars came on a play that started on the opposite side of the 50.
Stud: RB Travis Etienne Jr.
Etienne continues to be the workhorse who keeps the Jaguars offense from getting stuck in neutral. The third-year running back added another 27 touches to his league-leading total (178) and finished with 79 rushing yards and 70 receiving yards.
Dud: The rest of the RB room
Tank Bigsby gives it back to Pit. pic.twitter.com/qiUNOwQZuh
— Fitz (@LaurieFitzptrck) October 29, 2023
It’s clear the Jaguars don’t trust Tank Bigsby or D’Ernest Johnson to spell Etienne. Even when the starter suffered an ankle injury that sent him to the blue medical tent, Jacksonville coaches jumped at the chance to throw Etienne back in the fire when he was cleared to return.
Did Bigsby actually fumble? NFL head of officiating Walt Anderson said it was too close to overturn the ruling on the field. Either way, the mistake won’t win over coaches’ trust.
At some point, the Jaguars have to find a way to keep some tread on Etienne’s tires.
Stud: K Brandon McManus and P Logan Cooke
Four field goals from 37, 38, 50, and 51 were no problem for McManus. If the kicker would’ve missed even one of those tries, Sunday could’ve been a lot more dramatic down the stretch.
For Cooke, there was a 54-yard boomer that was fair caught on the Steelers’ 11-yard line. His other two punts bounced inside the 10-yard line. One was fielded by Antonio Johnson at the 2-yard line. The other slowly bounced into the end zone before a gunner could get off a block.
Dud: Officials
No, the Jaguars didn’t get all the calls and, no, the officials didn’t want the Jaguars to win. But Pittsburgh fans have a right to be annoyed with the crew from Sunday.
Kenny Pickett was injured when he was absolutely buried by Adam Gotsis on a play that looked like a textbook roughing, but there was no flag. There was one on a perfectly clean hit from Keanu Neal, though.
The offsides call that nullified a 55-yard field goal for the Steelers was also puzzling.
There was also a tomahawk chop to Trevor Lawrence’s face from T.J. Watt that went uncalled and it sure didn’t look like Bigsby fumbled. But the scales of justice were mostly tipped against the Steelers on Sunday.
